Marvin Minsky - Freeman Dyson proves what I couldn't (71/151)

To hear more of Marvin Minsky’s stories, go to the playlist: • Marvin Minsky - The am...
The scientist, Marvin Minsky (1927-2016) was one of the pioneers of the field of Artificial Intelligence, having founded the MIT AI Lab in 1970. Since the 1950s, his work involved trying to uncover human thinking processes and replicate them in machines. [Listener: Christopher Sykes; date recorded: 2011]
TRANSCRIPT: [CS] Right, so you... you were haunted by the fact that you couldn’t make this work for any old triangle.
Right, but it seemed, if it was true for a... equilateral one and a right angle one and a pentagon... triangle in a pentagon, then it must be true for all of them, but I couldn’t prove it and then... somehow I got a message... I don’t remember how I learned but... that this fellow Dyson had extended this and managed to prove either that or a similar thing about four points on a big circle, a square. Anyway, it was clear to me that, if it was true for these three kinds of triangles, it must... there’s an extra degree of freedom here, that it’s true for a whole class of things and so maybe it’s also true for a particular set of four points instead of a lot of different sets of three points and Dyson proved that in a paper that I actually retrieved yesterday and...
But there was another mathematician who proved something similar around the same time. But anyway, when I read Dyson’s paper I was so impressed that anybody could actually produce such an amazingly complicated proof of something at all and my reaction was not to learn how to do that, but to say: 'Oh he has a different skill set from me and I don’t have that particular skill set so I’ll stop trying to push this anymore because there’s somebody in the world who’s better at it.' So I’ll... I'll get... I’ll print out that part of Dyson’s... Dyson actually mentioned me and Kakutani in his paper of... as having started this thing.
And... so... anyway, it was one of my early experiences of saying: 'Oh look, I would like to do this kind of fixed point topology, but since there’s someone better at it, why...' It’s the cowardice principle: Why bother to do something if somebody else is already better at it? And so I’ve always been excited to see what Dyson does next and I’ve followed his career quite a lot so I did read some of the early Orion things, but I never actually saw the final result of the theory and the politics that must have gone into getting it dismissed. Of course once you’re on the moon you can do it, because there’s nobody to kill, but it’s pretty hard to get a lot of people up on the moon.

[@pspicer777]

... and this is a man that was not used to having to play second fiddle to anyone. What a wonderful story and perspective.

[@us-Bahn]

A bittersweet recollection. The humility in recognizing another’s efforts at the cost of your own self-esteem and motivation. It’s a commendable tribute.

[@PrivateSi]

Minsky and Dyson are two thinkers I appreciate.. They understand the box better than many and are good at thinking inside it but readily think outside the box when it gets too claustrophobic.

[@edwardjones2202]

In the same web of stories Dyson said he gave up on pure maths because he was trying to get a result in an important area but couldn't! He figured he wasn't cut out for it!!

[@Unexpectedthings007]

there is always someone better then us we should stay humble everytime

[@Frisbieinstein]

Freeman also proved things that I couldn't.

[@tear728]

Same

[@fightbacktohealth9625]

What a breath of fresh air... Dr. Minsky

[@Cornell851]

Very humble man

[@aravartomian1]

The crocodile playing the accordion seems very surprised.

[@davidfloren5339]

I was having trouble writing the first sentence of my first novel. Do you mind if I borrow this one?

[@TheSpectatorProject]

His name is Ghena

[@therespectedlex9794]

@@TheSpectatorProject Not Ingwenya?

[@NothingMaster]

I love the row of stuffed animals behind him.

[@SilentAdventurer]

It is the greatness principle, not the cowardice principle :)

[@debabratabhattacharyya2266]

He is so humble and unbelievable

[@fightbacktohealth9625]

The Cowardice Principle and The Humility Principle

[@barrym5310]

This story reminds me of Jeff Bezos relating why he stopped pursuing a career as a theoretical physicist. Many people may not associate Bezos with humility, but it certainly comes through as he tells the story. I believe it's part of his conversation with Lex Fridman.

[@rajeev_kumar]

Amazing

[@timolyphant9778]

What was that proof

[@moegreen3870]

+Tim Olyphant - if you mean what was the proof Dyson submitted, i believe it might be this:
"Continuous Functions Defined on Spheres," Annals of Mathematics, 54, 1951, pages 534 to 536
but if you mean the paper by Minsky, i am not sure yet :)
if i find Minsky's paper i'll reply here

[@joselukas24]

No Luck? Ive tried and failed :(

[@SilentAdventurer]

Jose Lopez me too

[@Evan490BC]

@@moegreen3870 "A Generalization of Kakutani's Fixed-Point Theorem," Bachelor's Thesis in Mathematics, Harvard, 1950.

[@thefakenewsnetwork8072]

Long live democratic socialism and freedom

[@Nostradamus_Order33]

1: atomic bomb
2: moon landings
3: c0vid viru5
Sheep di€d on the last one